Barry Zito had a rough afternoon Sunday that would have been far worse had his teammates not stormed back from a four-run hole and saved him from his 17th loss.

After the Giants scored twice in the 10th inning to win 8-6 and complete a season domination of San Diego, Zito was asked what he most hoped to accomplish over his final two starts.

"I just want to have fun," he said. "I want to be uninhibited and feel free out there and loose and enjoy it. This is what I love to do, and I don't get to do it in this venue again until April. I'm not going to put pressure on myself to get to 10 wins or any statistical goals. I just want to go out and have a good time."

Zito's quote embodies the way the Giants are finishing a 2008 season that began with predictions of 100 losses. Yeah, they could say they are shooting for second place, or maybe 75 wins, but that is not the point.

They are loose. They are happy. They are winning.

What does that mean for 2009? It is hard to say. A strong finish will not make a 25-homer, 100-RBI man magically appear to bat fourth and help the Giants be a winning team again. But it beats the alternative, which right now is defined by the Padres (57-93).

San Diego owned the Giants last year, winning 14 of 18 meetings. This year, the Giants won 13 of 18, which means that practically one of every five San Francisco wins has come against the Padres.

Lots of Giants had fun as the team won for the ninth time in 11 games Sunday, leaning on 51/3 shutout innings by the bullpen.

Pablo Sandoval, though fighting a bug, had a blast even as he was blasted by Padres shortstop Luis Rodriguez in the game's pivotal play. With one out in the eighth, Will Venable singled to left. Rodriguez tried to score from second ahead of Randy Winn's one-hop throw, but Sandoval caught it, blocked the plate and survived an explosive collision to preserve a 6-6 tie.

"I kind of like it when they hit me," Sandoval said. "That's part of the game. I'd like to play in the NFL someday."

Alex Hinshaw had fun when he struck out Adrian Gonzalez with the bases loaded to end that inning. He pumped his fist as he walked off the mound.

Travis Ishikawa had a ball with three more hits, including the first of five consecutive singles that enabled the Giants to claw out of their Zito-dug hole and score four runs in the sixth inning against side-winding right-hander Cla Meredith to tie it 6-6. Ishikawa also singled after Sandoval's leadoff double in the decisive 10th inning. Sandoval later scored on a wild pitch, Ishikawa on a bases-loaded walk to Rich Aurilia.

Omar Vizquel, whose two-run single capped the four-run sixth, certainly is enjoying himself more as he finishes the year on the field, instead of the bench, in place of an injured Emmanuel Burriss.

Closer Brian Wilson got his laughs at the expense of four Padres hitters who must have wondered if an alien had invaded his body. In securing his 39th save, Wilson relied almost exclusively on sliders merely to prove he is not a fastball-throwing automaton.

"I even threw a curveball for the fun of it, and he hit it back at my face," Wilson said, referring to Edgar Gonzalez's two-out single. Wilson got Brian Giles to ground a slider to Vizquel to end the game.

Nobody could have had more fun than Bochy, who treated every game against his former team this season like Game 7 of the World Series. You would, too, if your employer of 24 years told you, "If you look for another job, we won't hold you back."

"They fought hard," Bochy said of his players. "It's a great win when you get down four runs and come back in this ballpark, which can be difficult. This game was won by our bullpen. When you walk nine (10 actually) guys as we did today and win, you know you're lucky, but they made the pitches when they had to."